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Overview

Chuck Blazer: “A Final in tribute to Marc-Vivien Foé”

(FIFA.com) Friday 27 June 2003

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Chairman of the Organising Committee for the FIFA Confederations Cup France 2003 Chuck Blazer has spoken about the accidental death of Marc-Vivien Foé.

The death of a footballer
“This loss affects us all deeply because it brings death into what is first and foremost a game. It is a terrible loss, not only for the Cameroon team. The Cameroonians are sad, and the French are too. It is not only history that unites France and Cameroon, it is also men, and Marc-Vivien Foé was one of them. As the President of the French Football Federation Claude Simonet said, ‘Foé died in his garden’, in the stadium where he won the French Championship in 2002, in ‘his’ town.My thoughts today go to his family and his team-mates.”

The France-Cameroon Final
“The Final will go ahead on Sunday, in accordance with the wishes of the Cameroon team. Marc-Vivien Foé’s team-mates have expressed their desire to play with his name on their shirts, and that is what will happen.Given the solemnity of the event, we have decided to cancel the cultural animations around the game that were originally planned.This Final will pay tribute to a superb footballer, a man who was valued by his team-mates and opponents alike. It will be a collective tribute of respect and solidarity towards Marc-Vivien Foé.”

Medical assistance during the match
“As you will note in the FIFA report (see Chronology of the death of Marc-Vivien Foé) , all the medical assistance necessary for a match in a major competition was present yesterday in Lyon. The Local Organising Committee and FIFA doctors did all they could to bring him back to life but unfortunately without success.We should know more about the exact causes of death as a result of an autopsy in the coming days.”